Despair
by Liz Jean Tonks
Summary: Merope's cruel father demands her to go to the grocery store - Merope doesn't have any Muggle money, though. What is she to do?/Please pay attention to the warnings inside.


Written for the Hogwarts Forum, Assignment 2.

**Name/House**: Liz, Gryffindor

**Subject/Task No**.: Extinct Languages, Task #2: Write about a person proving their loyalty to someone they care for.

**Summary**: Merope is desperate. Her cruel father demands her to go to the grocery store - Merope doesn't have any Muggle money, though...

* * *

**_Trigger warning for prostitution and emotional abuse._ **

Thanks to Mason and Sophie for Beta-reading!

* * *

"Father, please, I don't want to go out there." Merope's eyes were wide and tears glistened between her eyelashes.

Marvolo Gaunt glared at her. "Do you want us to starve to death or what?"

"But it's storming outside. Couldn't I wait until it stops raining?"

Merope ducked her head as her father got up from his armchair and towered over her. "I don't care when you're going, but I want dinner to be ready in no less than an hour, and I don't advise you to linger much longer, should you wish not to anger me again." He pushed her aside and went into the room next door that served as his and Morfin's bedroom. The two of them had the little room with two beds for themselves while Merope always slept on the living room floor. Not on the couch because Marvolo didn't want her to sleep there.

Merope gazed through the window outside where a thunderstorm raged. Lightning struck every second, and the thunder made her flinch. She didn't want to go out there but she knew that her father and her brother would get very mad if they didn't get their dinner, and they didn't have any food left in the house.

She had to go to the store and get something. Merope reached down into her pocket where she kept her wallet. She counted the coins and realised that she only had a couple of Knuts and a few pennies left. There wasn't enough time to walk to Huntingdon, the next bigger village that also had a wizard quarter with a small market, so she had to find a muggle market in Little Hangleton and pay with Muggle money.

Merope chewed her lip. One hour. It wasn't a lot of time, and the storm was still raging. She grabbed her jacket that had been drying over the chimney and pocketed her wallet, but her heart was beating fast as she walked outside. She hated thunderstorms. She hated them above anything else.

Although it was summer, it was already getting dark outside, and Merope was freezing under her jacket. She walked down the street.

One corner, she turned to the left, the next corner, to the right. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she thought that it didn't make any difference anyway. All the streets were deserted now. She was afraid that no one would be outside today. If she couldn't get some money through begging, she had no idea how she would pay for the groceries.

Finally, she reached a narrow backstreet where she found some people.

Looking around, Merope decided that she didn't like it there at all. It seemed to be even darker here than on the main road, and the people she saw looked… shifty.

She sat down and leaned against the cold wall of an old stone house. She took out her wallet and made a pleading face, but all she earned were pejorative glares by the people walking by.

As time passed by, Merope got anxious. If she didn't come home with something to eat, she might as well not go home at all.

She watched as a woman entered the road; she was wearing a colourful dress that didn't look any less ripped than Merope's, but unlike Merope, she wasn't wearing a jacket. She gave one of the men a slinky smile and a moment later, they disappeared into one of the houses.

Merope swallowed. She looked at her empty wallet and up into the sky. Soon, it would be dinnertime. And she didn't have any money or food. She looked around to see if anyone would come by who'd give her some money, but everyone looked to be minding their own business.

_Stupid girl, _she thought to herself, _no one here is going to give you money for nothing..._

She bit her lip and doffed her jacket, revealing the thin dress she was wearing underneath. She placed the jacket on the ground and looked up at the men that walked past her. Some gave her a lewd grin, but nobody stopped. Merope wasn't sure whether or not she was relieved that they hadn't stopped.

As the minutes passed and nothing happened, Merope started fumbling around her dress, trying to make the neckline a little longer. Suddenly, a man approached her. His grin was slimy. Merope estimated his age to be around thirty.

She swallowed as she tried to put on a smile just as seductive as the woman she had watched earlier.

"Hey, Pretty." He bent down to her. "How much money is it for an hour?" He stroked over her neck with his long, dirty fingers.

Merope swallowed once more. "How much will you give me?"

He put his right hand into his pocket without taking his left hand off her neck. Out of his pocket, he drew out a ten pound note.

"What do you say, Pretty?"

Merope bit her lip, then she picked up her jacket, got up and gave the man a short nod.

X

An hour later she left the house. Her body hurt and all she wanted was to collapse on the floor and die, but she forced herself to leave the alley first. Tears were streaming down her face, but in her hands, she was holding the ten pound note, enough money to provide her family with a dinner.

Merope wiped her hand over her eyes. Her thighs were covered in blood and her dress smelled of the man.

Merope tried to shake off her thoughts, but it was hard to banish the last hour from her mind. The images came back to her over and over again. Half in a trance, she bought her groceries and walked home.

It took her another hour until she reached their shack. When her father saw her entering the house, he snarled at her at once.

"What took you so long? We've been waiting for hours!"

Merope brought her groceries into the kitchen and lit up a fire. Her eyes were still teary and she couldn't wait to wash her legs. But Marvolo didn't seem to care about any of that. He followed her into the kitchen and shoved her away from the fireplace. "I told you to have dinner ready an hour ago! We're going hungry while you're running around outside!"

Merope didn't know what to say. She wiped a hand over her face again.

"And if you've met with that Muggle boy again, Merope, I assure you that he will be hung and so will you." He kicked her.

"I was– I was just g-getting groceries," Merope stammered.

He glared at her, but to her relief, Merope looked up to see that he had turned around again. "Hurry with dinner!" he shouted over his shoulder.

Merope didn't know how she managed to prepare the dinner, but thirty minutes later, a decent soup was stewing. She placed plates and spoons on the kitchen table and called Marvolo and Morfin. When they sat down and ate, she asked to be excused and ran upstairs into the bathroom. It was the only room in the house with a key, and she locked it before she collapsed on the floor, sobbing. She took off her dirty dress and cleaned her skin with water and blankets. She threw the dress into the water tub and grabbed for another one that was hanging on the clothesline. It wasn't completely dry, but at least it was clean. She took a deep breath, wiped over her eyes one last time and walked downstairs again. She still had a lot of cleaning to do before she could go to bed.


End file.
